The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1887-08-06
MAJE BRoNsoN's GOLD HUNT.
He Dug and Dug till the Country Looked
Like q Buffalo Wallow.
New York Sun.


ter and spring on hermits as this
has been," remarked Maize Bronson,
an old prospector, as he threw him
self from his horse in front of the
Big Horn saloon the other evening.
"Ive been in this country ever since
Crook was here, and never before
have SO many old cranks and lone
somes turned up their toes. There
was old Venner on the Belle Four
che, and old man Skies on Wind
river. Then there were the two
Bonoses up there in the Big Horn
range; the old chap Thomas with
one leg, i'm the Pryor mountain re-
gion; old Susie, the terror, in the
Little Powder country, and Howit-
ger Brown, of Buffalo slough. Every
one of these died between Novem-
ber and May sometime, and no one
was with them. Ihave helped bury
two or three of them. Miserable
old devils they were, too. Stuck on
something every one of them.
"Now, what | want to say is
that l have found out how easy it
is to get a little off in the skull
without knowing it. Old Howitzer
Brown left will, you remember,
making me his heir. 1t was a queer
document, but we made it out sure
enough. In it he gave the closest
directions where we would find
$4,000 in gold, which was to be
mine OH condition that l was to
take his remains to Laramie and
put up cheap monument for him.
The directions as to the place where
the gold was were so simple that it
seemed as though no one could help
from falling over the stuff, and |
just sent the fellows away, saying |
could get the cash without any help
Well, followed his orders and dug,
thinking to myself that this beat
any mining that / ever did. Pretty
soon it occurred to me that the
money was a good ways down, and
then | had to stop and rest. The
next day kept on digging until |
had hole that you could bury a
Westinghouse in, and still no sign
of the gold. That night | looked
at the will again. After saying that
| had always been his friend, and
that he made me his sole heir, old
Brown had written:
"This gold, to the value of $780,
600, will be found in tin cans in the
earth fourteen PAGES north of my
cabin and fourteen PAGES east. Let
the said Bronson pace off the first
fourteen to stone there sunk in
the earth, and then turning east let
him pace off fourteen more. There
he will find a patch of buffalo grass,
and under there, at a depth of three
feet, is the treasure.
"The next day / paced the dis
tance off again and found that | had
made no mistake. The first stone
was there, and there had been a
patch of buffalo grass on the place
where l had been digging. Then
the thought occurred to me that
the old man might have been lit
tie hazy, and that perhaps he got
mixed up. So | went over the first
fourteen stretches, and then made
fourteen to the west, which brought
me to a nice bunch of buffalo grass.
Here, thought /, is the place. 1t
was the old mans mistake, and l
began to feel sorry for him. After
little l began to dig, and threw
up the earth all around an found
nothing"
"What to do then didn't know.
l read the will again, and again,
but could make nothing more out
of it. 1t was just the same. SO l
thought | would try the combina-
ton in a different way. l went
fourteen PAGES west and then four
teen PAGES south and dug. Then /
went fourteen PAGES south and four
teen PAGES east and dug, but found
nothing at ALL AT length made
up my mind that the boys might as
we'll have some of the fun, and l
went down to the camp and got
them up. They read the will over
and over again, and we tried few
combinations and dug without sue
cess until at length they got tired
and gave up the job.
"When / was left alone / con-
cluded to think the matter over for
awhile in quiet. | had tried the
fourteen combination until the
country round about looked like a
buffalo wallow, and nothing was to
be gained by pursuing that any
further. At length it occurred to
me that the old man might have
meant forty-one instead of fourteen
and l paced that off. This brought
me into a big hole where somebody
had dug long time before. Then
| figured on twenty weight and again
brought up in hole. One hun
dred and forty brought me into a
hole, as also did 2SO Then l tried
the sevens. Seven PAGES north and
seven PAGES east brought nothing.
T ad in this way for four weeks,